I have been reciting and workshopping again. I was invited to Blairgowrie High School, to visit a S1 class in the Learning Resources Centre. The children hadn’t seen any performance poetry, so I recited a few examples to give them an idea of the variation in tone and subject matter than can be covered by performance verse. The pupils heard about a cat-eating cloud, a short-sighted rhinoceros, and an internet ordering mix up. Some of the poems had call and response lines to engage the children.
After the poems it was time for a “Descriptiveness and Performance Workshop”. I explained what similes and metaphors were, and then the pupils came up with a few examples, before writing a list poem using similes about a rainy Monday. As the workshop was taking place on a rainy Monday there was plenty of inspiration outside the window, and some excellent descriptions resulted.View full article »

Now the dust has settled and the Eurovision has brought full free democracy to Azerbaijan by the medium of a song contest – or not. Here’s my take. So don’t worry if you missed the cheese fest. I’ve summed each of the 26 acts up in a line of verse so you won’t feel left out. And the poem is a lot shorter than the real thing.

Below is the start of my novel. Publishing details on “Into A Cursed Land” link in right hand column. Enjoy…

There’s a lot of rubbish talked about magic. People like to make it seem more difficult than it is. They use swanky hand gestures, wear flowing robes, and shout incantations in magical languages that no one else understands without years of training. Yeah right! I knew it was all rubbish. Magic in this land was easy to do, which had saved my life more than once. Okay it had put my life in danger but here I was – fifteen years old and still breathing.

I’m glad e-books can be read in so many different ways on so many different devices, although this can make life difficult if there is more than plain text in the novel. My teen fiction e-book “Into A Cursed Land” contained images and tables. Before I uploaded it to Amazon, I checked the formatting as best I could. The book should look fine on a Kindle or P.C. but some people read stuff on their phones, and I’m not sure the pictures and specially formatted bits will come out well. So on this post I’ve included the map, oath, and the Bully Lists from Chapter 15 (Patrols) & Chapter 24 (Demons). If you haven’t read my book none of this will make sense. If you wish to the amazon.co.uk link is on the right. Be warned Into A Cursed Land is not cosy and nice, with the central character being an anti-hero. The Images are below…